In the quenching of coke, the glowing coke can be sprayed with quenching water while the quenching vapor and smoke thus produced are carried away into the atmosphere. In the processing unit for performing this process a quenching tower receives a quenching carriage with the coke.
Over the last decade the glowing coke of a coke plant has been fed by a quenching carriage to a quenching tower in which large quantities of water were sprayed on the glowing coke. Even today most coke plants use this quenching process. The quenching tower is open at its top so that the quenching smoke and vapor arising in the quenching process is delivered directly to the atmosphere.
By the use of suitable baffles in the quenching tower efforts have been made to retain much of the quenching water and the particles entrained therewith to limit environmental pollution.
A coke dry cooling is also known in which an indirect cooling of the glowing coke is effected by heat transfer. The dry cooling of coke and also the so-called wet cooling occur in a closed system.
The plant engineering for carrying out the dry cooling or a cooling in a closed system requires considerable expense (between 150 and 250 million West German marks for the typical coke plant). Also the maintenance of this kind of plant is very expensive, especially since usually the released heat can not be completely utilized because the capacity for abstracting heat energy is simply lacking.